Ed Chavez updates his big list of discontinued manga at the MangaCast, and he notes some trends: manhwa and seinen titles are more likely to get the ax (or just fade away without an announcement) but on the brighter side, some dropped titles are being picked up by other publishers. Meanwhile, some guy at the ADV booth at ACEN tells Gia that yes, they are still publishing manga, and no, they don’t have a release date for vol. 6 of Yotsuba&! yet. Nonetheless, Ed puts Cromartie High School, Gunslinger Girl, and Yotsuba&! on his dead manga list.
David Welsh lists some manga collections he’d like to see at Precocious Curmudgeon; commenters chime in with more.
A helpful reader has provided an English transcript of the French interview with Suehiro Maruo posted recently at Same Hat.
Otaku USA editor Patrick Macias and contributing writer Matt Alt take a trip to the Mandarake complex in Akihabara, and they record the experience, plus some other adventures, in podcast form.
Canned Dogs has an account of Takehiko Inoue’s reasons for moving to Evening magazine and starting Vagabond after Slam Dunk ran its course.
Tiamat’s Disciple is not impressed with Viz’s UK launch, and neither are his commenters.
The Viet Nam News reports on some resistance to unflipped manga in that country.
News from Japan: ANN reports that the Hakushaku to Yosei (The Count and the Fairy) light novels, already slated to be made into anime, will have a manga incarnation as well. The fantasy series is set in Victorian England and will run in Margaret magazine. Helen McCarthy looks at anime and manga museums in Japan at Suite 101. And here’s another destination to add to your list: Tokyo Character Street, an underground street of shops featuring anime and manga characters. (Cover image from Hakushaku to Yosei swiped from ANN.)
Reviews: Johanna Draper Carlson gives vol. 17 of Kindaichi Case Files the thumbs-up at Comics Worth Reading, and she also enjoys vol. 9 of Inubaka: Crazy for Dogs. Mangamaniac Julie checks out Renai Sousa: Love Control at the MangaCast. Katherine Dacey reviews two upcoming one-shots, Haridama: Magic Cram School and The Reformed, at Manga Recon. Connie reads Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms at Slightly Biased Manga. At Active Anime, Scott Campbell reviews vol. 3 of Muhyo & Roji’s Bureau of Supernatural Investigation and vol. 21 of Berserk, and Holly Ellingwood reads Haridama: Magic Cram School and the light novel Maid Machinegun. Michelle gives an A- to vol. 17 of Tsubasa at Soliloquy in Blue. Tiamat’s Disciple takes a walk on the prose side with a look at the Rurouni Kenshin light novel Voyage to the Moon World. Carl Kimlinger reads vol. 19 of Fruits Basket, Carlo Santos pans vol. 1 of Short Sunzen, and Theron Martin reviews vols. 4 and 5 of Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~ at ANN. David Welsh has a thoughtful review of Disappearance Diary at Precocious Curmudgeon. Salimbol reviews vol. 16 of Wallflower and vol. 6 of Vampire Knight. At the Dublin (California) Library, Sharibet reviews XXXHolic. Lissa Pattillo kicks off a week of mystery manga with a look at vol. 1 of Kamen Tantei at Kuri-ousity.
Confidential to QC and Cat: Hotmail is bouncing my e-mails to you for some reason. If you have another e-mail address I can use, please send it along and I’ll re-send my replies to you.
“Resistance to unflipped manga in Vietnam”
I own some Vietnamese manga, and I can say that UNFLIPPED manga is the best way to go. If the debate says that right to left makes your eyes tired, this would also be valid in the US, only readers have gotten used to it. Furthermore, manga creators dislike the flipping process. It also messes up the actual manga. Case Closed (aka Detective Conan) relies heavily on Japanese puns, word plays, and also detail within the artwork. One case had Conan solving a case when he realized that the killer was not used to driving a car with the driver seat on the left side, because the car was imported. However, when flipped, the seat became on the left side, so the whole entire case made no sense whatsoever. And yes, each country has its own culture, so you should RESPECT the creator’s culture when you bring manga into another country. Localization can only go so far. That’s why I dislike total localization, and instead likes translation notes. It’s interesting as well. Both things are missing from the Vietnamese releases, and the translation is subpar. I’m glad a publisher is trying to preserve the integrity of the manga and bringing it to another country in the original way it was meant to be read, with all its original meaning and artwork intact. It’s been bothering me for awhile, which is why I buy the English edition and not the Vietnamese edition, though I’m fluent in both.
I didn’t even know there’s a light novel for Ryounin Kenshin Orz. These days you can write light novels for every anime series, video games, and manga ever existed…… It’s like digging around in the trash dump for materials to write. Do light novel writers really lack originality to such an extent? I suppose some people do prefer reading words on paper, but I’d rather enjoy the story on the media it’s originally presented on.
> Do light novel writers really lack originality to such an extent?
It was my impression that there are a lot of original light novels in Japan, and they rapidlyl get adapted into other media franchises. (Like Haruhi Suzumiya…)
Yes, there are tie-in light novels but as Erin said, there are also a lot of original light novel series. In fact, the light novel series mentioned in this post, “Hakushaku to Yousei”, is another example of an original light novel series that is being adapted to other media. There are a lot of anime and manga adaptations of light novels nowadays.